Brooks City-Base could be site for new medical school

By Jessica Cervantes, Staff Writer

Published 2:06 pm, Monday, June 17, 2013

The University of the Incarnate Word is moving forward with the feasibility study for a new $50 million osteopathic medical school following a unanimous vote of support June 7 by the university's board of trustees.

One location under consideration is Brooks City-Base because of, one official said, its growing medical importance to the city.

Other potential sites include San Antonio's near South Side, downtown and the city's northwest area, officials said.

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“There was a need for a (osteopathic school) in Texas, period,” Agnese said, adding “our focus will be on primary care family practice doctors.”

There is a demonstrated need for this speciality. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2010, Texas had the third-lowest number of active primary care physicians in the nation. The association's study showed only 15,633 in the state with its 25,213,445 residents, and a mere 1,535 holding doctorates of osteopathic medicine.

One goal of the proposed medical school is to increase the availability and access to the medical field to the Hispanic youth in South Texas, Agnese added.

Agnese explained he assembled a task force in August to look at the feasibility of opening a medical school. The assembled experts, including master's of business administration students, finished their research in April with the recommendation to go forward with formal feasibility study.

The study then went through a successful review by the university faculty senate and its planning commission. The next step is to hire deans and creating positions for new residents. The groundwork so far has cost UIW $2.5 million, he said.

“We want the doctors who we graduate from here to stay in Texas,” Agnese said referring to the residency programs that will be created in San Antonio, Laredo and in South Texas.

The board of trustees announced it is looking at four different locations for the proposed medical school, including UIW's Rosenberg School of Optometry on Datapoint Drive in the city's northwest; at the downtown Fox Tech High School; Brooks City-Base in the southeast area; and near the intersection of Walters Street and Interstate 35 on the East Side.

“By October, we will bring to the board our recommendations as to which of the four sites is the most conducive for the medical school,” said Agnese, who is a part of the site subcommittee that also includes two other board members.

Agnese said the top two locations, in his opinion, are the downtown and Brooks sites because of their placement in the city. The downtown location would be good for San Antonio, he explained. It should mean more medical students living in the area and it is close to downtown hospitals, he said. Brooks City-Base is a growing area close to other local hospitals as well, he noted.

The formal feasibility study will be completed in March, and, with the final approval from the board, construction should begin in June, Agnese said. The new facility will cost $50 million, he said, adding the school's first six years will run a deficit but, by the eighth year, the university should have “recouped all of its losses.”

The university has budgeted more than $20 million for the project and plans to raise funding for the remainder of the cost.

The school's anticipated opening is set for August 2016 with and plans call for 500 students to be enrolled in the first four years, supported by 50 full-time faculty and 20 full-time administrative staff.

The school's courses will duplicate the path to an MD degree, but students will be required to take three additional classes of holistic medicine and will receive a doctorate of osteopathic medicine, or OD.

“We don't really expect too many obstacles because it has been so well received at the county and city level and by Mayor Castro,” Agnese said.

Dr. Francisco González-Scarano, dean of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said he has offered “informal advising” to help UIW's program because he is interested in increasing the number of physicians in the community.

He explained medical schools, with their graduating physicians, help balance medical care standards, especially in a fast-growing city such as San Antonio.